Be careful what you wish for

September 8, 2013

This letter is directed at all of those who know and understand what Obamacare is: the budget vote is coming up on Sept. 30 - there is still time to defund this debacle and end it, before it really begins in earnest.

Contact your U.S. representatives and urge their support for the defunding.

For those who still buy into the Obamacare myth, and those who are still so enthusiastically buying the hype, despite all the negative issues that are finally starting to emerge, if they're still on board by now, they're a lost cause.

Why would they still blindly support a program from which most of the government - including its namesake president and his family, as well as the IRS, the very agency tasked with carrying out its implementation - has arrogantly seen fit to exempt itself, while still insisting on imposing it upon the rest of us? Even the members of the Supreme Court, which upheld its constitutionality, are now exempt.

The White House is now admitting that portions of it will not work as promised. This thing has been lied about from the very beginning.

Initially, we were told that it was so efficient, it would "only" cost $100 billion over 10 years; then, $500 billion. After all was said and done, however, we learned that a lowball estimate is actually nearer to $2 trillion for that period.

We were told we'd be able to keep our own doctors and coverage - oops ... nope.

Do you know what an I.P.A.B. is?

What Republicans pointlessly called Death Panels, an I.P.A.B. is an Independent Payment Advisory Board, a bureaucratic committee which, when Obamacare takes full effect, will decide whether or not you'll get your required treatments.

You'll visit the doctor (maybe not your doctor, but a doctor), who will diagnose and suggest treatment. Your case will then go before the IPAB and, after some time, it will decide - based on many different factors like age, overall health and even your lifestyle - if you'll receive the treatment. Or not.

For example; have you been chronically ill for a long time? Do you smoke or drink or ride motorcycles? Do you have a lot of speeding tickets or engage in heavy contact or extreme sports? Do you own a gun(s)? Good luck getting proper treatment.

If you're age 62 or over and need, say, a new hip, you may well have to make due in your golden years with a prescription for pain pills, because within a few years you'll be retired and an unproductive drag on resources.

There will be no doctors on the IPABs, only bureaucrats, making important medical decisions for you and yours.

Free health care? Be careful what you wish for.

I wonder if they'd still be so supportive if the program, as it stands right now, were called "Reagancare", or "Bushcare"? Somehow, I doubt it.